Archive

My girlfriend just got her hands on the new EA Active, a fitness-based game for the Wii that’s intended to provide you a guided workout in the comfort and privacy of your home. She set it up tonight and gave it the college try. I got to watch her do her first workout. Sorry, she wouldn’t let me video it and post it to YouTube (I believe pain of death was mentioned).

The setup is typical Wii simplicity. You start by creating a fitness profile. The fitness profile allows you to track progress over time. Part of the profile creation process is building an avatar that resembles your current body type. Age, sex, weight, height, etc are all specified in your avatar.

Once you set up EA Active, you can choose from a number of workout options, including preset workout routines. EA is currently pushing their 30 Day Challenge, which is built into the game. Since she got the unit for free as part of a nationwide promo to push the 30 Day Challenge, that’s what she’s going through. The game lets you pick an intensity level for each workout day and they recommend two workout days followed by a rest day.

The game comes with a thigh band and a resistance band. The thigh band has a pocket that holds the nunchuck to allow the game to track certain activities. (Hint – the nunchuck goes in upside down). The resistance band is basically a strap of rubber and a couple of canvas handles that you knot the band into. If you really get into this, you’re going to probably want to buy heavier bands.

Since it was late when she started, she chose the low intensity workout. Activities included walking/running, squats, cardio boxing, inline skating, side lunges, shoulder raises, bicep curls, and upright rows. With the 30 Day Challenge, you get an onscreen trainer to coach and motivate you. I gotta say that I was ready to kill the trainer after just a few minutes and I wasn’t even doing the exercises. It would be nice if the trainer’s motivation level could be tuned or even turned off.

Initial impressions of the workout were OK. Her fitness level is pretty high, so the workout was hardly challenging. But she’s going to be trying the higher intensity workouts in upcoming days so she’ll have a better idea of how much “work” is involved in the workout. Also, she felt the amount of guidance concerning proper form and technique could be improved.